by Cookie the cat was stalking something in the iris next to the pond. He stealthily stepped in among the iris from the pool side and suddenly out jumped a frog. Bre’r Frog bounded out from the side opposite the pond and around the iris toward the pond and safety. Bre’r Cat jumped out of the iris on the pond side trying to head off Bre’r Frog before it made it into the water. However, Bre’r Cat miscalculated and fell in the pond. Bre’r Frog made it to safety and Bre’r Cat was left licking himself dry. I laughed and laughed.
While out for their evening stroll, Tino called Chris’s attention to a dead bird lying in the grass east of our back porch. The large windows in the sky room and back porch take a toll on birds, especially, I think, this time of year. Maybe the sun lower in the sky creates more of a reflection of the trees than it does at other times of the year. The birds see the reflection and think they are flying into trees only to crash into a window, often with fatal consequences. Just a day or two before. I found a dead flicker that had crashed into the sky room windows
The bird Tino and Chris found was, as best I could make out, a male Cooper’s hawk. My bird guide said sharp-shinned hawks are often mistaken for Cooper’s, even by experienced bird watchers. It said the Cooper’s has a rounded tail while the sharp-shinned has a squared off tail. This one had a rounded tail but was more the size of a sharp-shinned hawk, which are smaller than Cooper’s hawks. This bird had markings similar to the illustration in the guide, except it didn’t have the reddish brown on its breast and was generally darker in color. The guide said male Cooper’s are smaller than the females. Even though this one wasn’t an exact match, I’m going with male Cooper’s, it being the closest to the picture and description in the bird guide.
One day this week there was a small bird in the shop flapping around the windows trying to get out. It must have gotten in under the garage door, which I had left up a little bit so the cats could come and go. When the bird saw me it panicked and knocked itself silly flying into the window. With it in a dazed state, I was able to pick it up and examine it. It looked like a wren but didn’t have the markings of a Carolina wren. Again referring to my bird guide, it was the closest to a house or winter wren. The size description of the winter wren came closer than the slightly larger house wren, I think. Neither photo in the guide matched it. The shape and markings were similar but this little guy was closer to black than the guide pics. I guess I’ll go with winter wren. This time of year there are a lot of birds about, many of them varieties we don’t usually see. SA is on the way to warmer climates, though, and provides good cover for weary travelers. I put the little wren in the blackberry push next to the shop, where I hope it managed to recover its senses and continue on its way.
Mowing the tall grass in the pasture I scared up a frog. I’m amazed a frog wouldn’t find it too dry now but apparently there is adequate moisture down in the grass for an amphibian to survive. I chased it down and put in the enclosure where I think it will have a better chance of surviving the winter.